India, US plan record 9 army drills

The Indian and US armies will have nine joint drills this year, a record of sorts even at a time both countries have been increasing the complexity and frequency of military exchanges. Some of the drills planned for this year will be war games built around battle scenarios and the others briefing sessions on battlefield tactics. A separate programme of exchanges for the air forces and the navies of the two countries is being discussed. With no other single country does the Indian military have as many exchanges as it does with the US. “We have reached a historic threshold with our relationship between the two countries,” the commanding general of the US Army Pacific, Lt General Benjamin R. Mixon, said. “The operations we do together are reaching a complexity of the highest level.” The top brass of the Indian Army and the US Army Pacific, Marine Forces Pacific and the Special Operations Command decided on the programme of the exercises for 2010-2011 at meetings of the executive steering group (ESG) of the two sides in the Indian Army’s western command headquarters in Chandimandir, near Chandigarh, last month. Mixon led the US delegation. The Indian team was led by the director-general of military operations (DGMO), Lt General A.S. Sekhon.  ...................................Tegraphindia

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